Meddling about with the OS X system

Have you have been interested in customizing your mac, yet you are hesitant to dig around through the private-frameworks files in your OS X install? Hesitate no longer.

For quite some time now, The Mac-Themes community has anticipated the arrival of ‘FACADE‘
An application to be used in conjunction with another app called ‘ARCHITECT‘ (which has been released as a beta for a while now) Which if used together, can result in a full-solution for customizing the OS X user-interface.

I recently found out that ‘MAGNIFIQUE‘ had been released, which is a free piece of software via Pcwiz, and the Magnifique Team.

Part of the appeal of modifying the UI for me, is the hands-on approach, Creating icons, figuring shit out, etc. I enjoy that part of the process.
But still, I jumped to explore this new application. Within most of the themes available for download, there existed some new modification to the interface that i had not been able to find or alter yet. It’s as simple to use as any other app. Just load the themes, and go. The application also leaves room for adjustments and personalization.
The user is given the option to “merge” themes, or port in their own. It’s great. But for free, it’s greater.

I am still looking forward to see what Facade comes up with. Architect alone seems great for designing a theme yourself. However it leaves the installation of the theme to Facade. So we’ll see how that all pans out when it is released.

There have been many hands-on techniques for quite some time now, And even other full-solution apps back in the Tiger-PPC days. ( such as ‘Shapeshifter’ by Unsanity Software ) Most of these techniques originated out of the Macthemes website, as well as the InsanelyMac forums, and can still be found there in the forums and wikis therein. Following is a brief description of the most typical procedures for customizing your Mac

1.) Mod the menubar, Change the Apple Icon.

First, download ArtTools. It is a simple java-decoding app that you run through terminal. It will also re-encode the art files into a new resource-file after you alter and / or replace the images in the art files.

Next, Go to this pathway:

System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUIFramework/Versions/A/Resources

The file we are concerned with here is SArtFile.bin
This file, along with Extras2.rsrc ( which i will get to shortly ) are the keys to modifying
the menubar, apple icon, and various aspects of the UI such as Finder window colors.

So backup SArtFile.bin, and copy it to the desktop. Then, place it in the ‘artTools’ folder along with the java files which are in the folder by default.

pen a Terminal, cd to the directory where the jars and SArtFile.bin are.type: java -jar artDecoder.jar SArtFile.bin artfiles/

all the files wille be unpacked to the artfiles folder. Edit them as you wish.

Once done navigate back to the folder in Terminal where the jars and SArtFile.bin are.
type: java -jar artfiles/ SArtFile.bin SArtFile.new.bin

check the size of SArtFile.new.bin (should be around 1.5 – 2.5 MB).

rename SArtFile.new.bin to SArtFile.bin (you might have to delete the original SArtFile.bin in the folder to do this).

Replace the current SArtFile.bin with it in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Resources/

Logout.

Done!

NOTE: IF SArtFIle.bin is very small like around a few hundred Kilobytes or you get an exception running the jars, you did something wrong.

Now, perhaps you just changed the menubar to a darker color. The menu-type in the menubar is likely still black. In order to change this, you will need to go and downloadThemepark.

Once you get Themepark going, You will want to go to Open > Special > Extras2.rsrc
This will start a new Extras2.rsrc file that you can replace your current one with.
the file’s native path in your system is here:

So once you’ve got your new Extras2.rsrc opened up in Themepark, you’ll want to navigate to clr# / 384

here is the window you should be looking at:

from there, you’ll want to count to the 30th, and 31st squares. ( counting the first square as zero ) Change the colors of those two squares to lighter colors, and save the file. Then backup your system’s default Extras2.rsrc file, and replace it with the new one. You should logout, and the text should be the new color you selected.